Today's Marketing Pulse
McKinsey predicts agentic AI will power two‑thirds of marketing activities
McKinsey’s new report forecasts that agentic AI could drive up to two‑thirds of marketing activities, shifting AI from a productivity add‑on to a core campaign engine. Early adopters are already using generative tools, while the next wave will involve autonomous agents that coordinate decisions across workflows. The firm outlines a five‑step roadmap for implementation.
The VinePair Podcast: Does 818 Tequila Unlock Younger Drinkers for Sazerac?
Sazerac announced a strategic investment in Kendall Jenner’s 818 Tequila, adding the fast‑growing, youth‑focused brand to its distribution network. The Louisville‑based spirits group currently owns only four name‑brand tequilas, leaving a gap in its appeal to Gen Z consumers. By leveraging its extensive sales infrastructure, Sazerac aims to broaden 818’s market reach while diversifying its own portfolio. The move signals a calculated push into the affordable, trend‑driven segment of the spirits market.
How Mario Carbone Turned a Restaurant Into a Global Phenomenon
Mario Carbone, co‑founder of Major Food Group, has transformed his flagship restaurant Carbone into a global brand by leveraging immersive, pop‑up experiences. The latest iteration, Carbone Beach, is a three‑night, sand‑side production staged during the Formula 1 Miami Grand Prix, blending multi‑course...
How to Drive Your Marketing Cloud Engagement Use Case to Its Destination
Salesforce’s Marketing Cloud Engagement (MCE) promises powerful automation, but success hinges on disciplined use‑case planning. The article walks firms through defining a business goal, starting with a modest pilot, and assembling a cross‑functional team. It then outlines nine concrete steps—naming...
Karan Gupta Calls for Human‑Centred Digital Design Amid Marketing Shift
Digital strategist Karan Gupta is urging marketers to make human‑centred design the core of every digital experience, citing that 70% of users abandon sites with poor usability. At the same time, Market Defense’s acquisition of Knoza signals a broader industry...
Garmin Cuts Epix Pro Gen 2 Price by 50%, Undercutting Samsung and Google
Garmin announced a 50% price cut on its Epix Pro Gen 2 Sapphire Edition, now $500 on Amazon, slashing the $1,000 MSRP. The steep discount positions the health‑focused watch as a compelling alternative to Samsung’s Galaxy Watch and Google’s Pixel Watch...
GenOptima Launches AEO‑as‑a‑Service, Guaranteeing AI Assistant Citations
GenOptima announced AEO‑as‑a‑Service (AEOaaS), a new performance‑driven category that promises verified brand citations in AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity. The model ties fees to actual answer‑engine placement rather than traditional activity metrics, marking a shift in how...
Under One Roof: The Opportunities and Challenges of Co-Branding
Co‑branding is gaining traction as franchisees like Mrs. Fields and TCBY combine forces to capture broader consumer segments. Shared storefronts lower operating expenses, enable cross‑purchasing, and smooth seasonal sales swings. The model also appeals to landlords, who see reduced vacancy...
How to Repurpose Existing Content for Multiple Channels
Azad Yakatally, social media lead at Spring Health, urged marketers to stop chasing brand‑new ideas and instead recycle existing assets across channels. At a Ragan conference he demonstrated how a single webinar, white paper or testimonial can be split into...
The Jesser Business Blueprint (Feat. JesserCo President Zach Miller)
In this episode of Crater Upload, hosts Lauren Schnipper and Joshua Cohen interview Zach Miller, President of Jesser Co., about the recent reorganization of the company and its growth strategy. Miller explains how the parent company shifted from Bucket Squad...
DMWF Spotlight: From Framework to Reality: Scaling Hyper-Personalisation with Greene King
The Digital Marketing World Forum highlighted how Bond’s Personalisation Maturity Framework helps companies move from fragmented, campaign‑centric tactics to true hyper‑personalisation. The framework evaluates four pillars—data, decisioning, content and orchestration—to pinpoint gaps and prescribe actionable steps. Greene King’s four‑year transformation, built...
Claude
Want to ideate a few programmatic pages for your site? This Claude prompt will help. (I recommend you don't go overboard. Just 10-20 pages will be a good starting point.) The prompt: "Based on my product [your url]) and my integrations/features: (name some...
Why Brand Purpose Fails (And the 3 Rules to Make It Work)
Brand purpose remains valuable, but most statements fail because they lack authenticity, coherence with overall strategy, and long‑term commitment. When purpose is grounded in what a company actually sells and linked to profit, it fuels employee engagement, innovation and higher...
The ‘Devil Wears Prada 2’ Trainer Built a Global Brand With Zero Marketing. Here’s How
Monique Eastwood, a former ballerina turned celebrity trainer, leveraged a viral Instagram post by Stanley Tucci during the COVID lockdown to transform her local UK fitness practice into a global brand. With 35 years of ballet‑based methodology, she already had...
The Science of Ad Intelligence: How Data-Driven Brands Reverse-Engineer Winning Campaigns
The article argues that paid‑media success now hinges on ad intelligence rather than gut instinct. By reverse‑engineering creatives that demonstrate longevity and stable spend, brands can compress testing cycles, lower customer‑acquisition cost (CAC) and avoid creative fatigue. Automated tools—especially Instagram...
Netflix Pushes Deeper Into Mobile with ‘Clips’ Feature
Netflix has rolled out a redesigned mobile app centered on a new “Clips” feature, a vertical, swipe‑able feed of short excerpts from its library. The feed lets users share clips, add titles to their watchlist, and jump straight into full...
The Hindu Turns the Star Rating on Its Readers This Labour Day
On International Labour Day, The Hindu Group released a print advertisement that asks readers to self‑assess before rating service providers. The ad uses a familiar five‑star checklist, posing questions about interactions with delivery riders, domestic help and security guards, and...
Sunil Grover and Kiku Sharda Bring ‘Dealpanti’ to Goibibo’s Latest Campaign
Goibibo has rolled out a new digital campaign titled “Dealpanti,” featuring Indian comedy veterans Sunil Grover and Kiku Sharda alongside cricketer‑turned‑brand ambassador Rishabh Pant. The two short films, created by Restless@MagicCircle and produced by Petromax India Films, use exaggerated, pop‑culture...
Social Media Trends for 2026
Social media remains a dominant media form in 2026, with more than two‑thirds of the global population online each month and users spending an average of seven hours weekly. Charities face a rapidly evolving landscape, where AI‑generated misinformation and platform...
The Stack: Advertising Gets More Autonomous
This week saw AI‑driven advertising move toward full autonomy, with Omnicom reporting live media buys executed by AI agents that purchase inventory directly from publishers. Anthropic demonstrated a closed‑loop AI‑agent marketplace where bots act as buyers and sellers, while OpenAI...
BT Mobile Could Be Coming Back
BT is set to announce the revival of its BT Mobile brand at a Wembley event next week, targeting the mass‑market segment. The relaunch aligns with CEO Allison Kirkby’s push to reposition BT as a national telco and to boost...
From Creative Optimization to Creative Intelligence: How Mobile Teams Scale Ad Performance in 2026
Mobile growth teams now see creative as the single biggest performance lever in 2026, not the sheer number of ads. The focus is shifting from volume‑driven testing to "creative intelligence"—systems that generate hypotheses, run structured experiments, learn patterns, and scale...
Customer Acquisition Vs. Retention: Where Should Early-Stage Startups Invest?
Early-stage startups must balance customer acquisition and retention. Acquisition drives market entry and validates product‑market fit, while retention boosts lifetime value, referrals, and profitability. Data shows retaining customers is far cheaper and yields higher conversion rates. The optimal approach is...
Specsavers Evolves ‘Should’ve Gone to Specsavers’ for First Time in 22 Years
Specsavers has launched a new global brand platform, reworking its long‑standing “Should’ve gone to Specsavers” slogan into “Should’ve gone to problem Savers”. The refreshed campaign shifts focus from routine eye tests and hearing checks to a wider suite of clinical...
Blue Launches Campaign for WeSave Three Year Insurance Plan
Blue, Hong Kong’s first digital life insurer, has launched a new multi‑channel campaign for its flagship WeSave Short Term Insurance Plan ST1 (3‑Year). The plan delivers a 3.81% guaranteed annual return, with premium options from US$13,000 to US$300,000 and no...
Choosing an Audio Branding Agency
Audio now accounts for 31% of media consumption, yet only 55.6% of brands have a sonic logo, highlighting a major gap in brand sound strategy. An audio branding agency goes beyond a single jingle, designing a comprehensive sonic ecosystem that...
Piramal Finance Rolls Out Hyperlocal Digital Campaign During Cricket Season
Piramal Finance has launched a digital‑first, hyperlocal campaign timed with the cricket season, deploying more than 1,000 short films across its 701‑branch network. Each film is adapted by geography, language and local context, covering eight regional languages and using AI‑driven...
How to Build $100M Offers for Your Substack (So Good People Feel Stupid Saying No)
The post argues that most newsletter creators face an offer problem rather than a traffic problem, meaning subscriber numbers alone don’t guarantee revenue. It proposes building "$100M offers"—high‑value, irresistible packages—that transform even a modest Substack list into a profit engine....
Honda Australia Invites Drivers to ‘Dream Again’
Honda Australia unveiled a new "dream again" brand campaign, centering on the return of the Honda Prelude. The TV spot shows a man navigating a maze of garages that house stalled personal ambitions, before revealing a Prelude that symbolizes reclaimed...
What An Outdoor Retailer Learned By Replacing Pricey SaaS With A Newcomer
Backcountry, a leading outdoor‑gear e‑commerce retailer, partnered with ad‑tech startup FERMÀT to beta‑test its Commerce Graph platform, a pixel‑based analytics tool that maps customer behavior across channels. The solution quickly outperformed the retailer’s legacy SaaS stack, delivering heat‑maps, traffic‑source performance...
What An Outdoor Retailer Learned By Replacing Pricey SaaS With A Newcomer
Backcountry, a leading outdoor gear retailer, replaced its legacy SaaS stack with FERMÀT's Commerce Graph, a beta analytics platform that uses pixel tracking and AI to deliver granular insights. The new tool matched or exceeded the functionality of solutions that...
The Illusion of Overnight Marketing Success
The Brand Tribe post dismantles the myth of overnight marketing triumphs, arguing that viral spikes are the visible tip of a long‑term effort. It highlights how months of positioning experiments, audience research, and steady messaging lay the groundwork for sudden...
SAMSONITE SERVES UP MOST DECADENT CAMPAIGN YET, STARRING OLIVIA CULPO
Samsonite unveiled a new Chocolate Mauve colour‑way across its Outline Pro™, Elevation Plus™ and Better Than Basic™ luggage lines, anchored by a high‑fashion campaign starring influencer Olivia Culpo. The campaign frames travel as a sensory, culinary‑inspired experience, using rich, neutral...
BLJ Worldwide, Aligator Technology Partner to Advance Media Intelligence in Qatar
BLJ Worldwide and Aligator Technology have signed an MoU to co‑develop Aligator’s OLLI media intelligence suite for the Qatari market. OLLI offers sentiment analysis, competitive benchmarking and AI‑generated insights in both English and Arabic, including dialect‑specific processing. BLJ will apply...
How AI Overviews Surface Negative Reviews, Without Anyone Searching for Them via @Sejournal, @EraseDotCom
In Q1 2026 AI‑assisted research tools began autonomously surfacing negative brand content—reviews, forum threads, and complaints—within comparison answers, even when users aren’t explicitly searching for problems. The shift means AI overviews act as de‑facto reputation audits, pulling recent, specific complaints from...
Brands Must Own AI Answers: AEO & GEO Essential
Is your brand showing up when AI answers your customers' questions? https://t.co/Ayo4Ffm1Wz Don’t miss @LIZkMILLER on why AEO and GEO aren't optional anymore, and the platforms leading the charge.
Everyone Wants a Piece of ‘The Devil Wears Prada 2′
A wave of brand collaborations is surfacing around the release of “The Devil Wears Prada 2,” echoing last year’s blockbuster tie‑ins. Marketers are also shifting toward series‑style content, leveraging humor and long‑form storytelling to keep ad‑weary consumers engaged. New measurement tools...
Meta’s AI Ad Engine Delivers 33% Revenue Growth
Meta reported Q1 2026 revenue of $56.3 billion, a 33% year‑over‑year jump driven almost entirely by AI‑enhanced ad ranking models. The upgrades—doubling user‑sequence length, accelerating same‑day post indexing, and richer content embeddings—lifted ad impressions 19% and raised average CPM 12%, adding roughly...
Why Refy Handed Creators Full Control — No Approvals — for Its Latest Launch Campaign
Refy launched its Skin Base Skin Tint, a $40 gel‑like product with hyaluronic acid and patented Inclusium, and paid 12 TikTok creators to promote it without requiring any pre‑approval. The brand’s head of brand, Charlotte Geoghegan, said the decision stemmed from...
Marketers Question Expensive AI Visibility Tools as Inconsistent Results Fuel Skepticism
Marketers are grappling with pricey AI‑visibility platforms that claim to track brand mentions in large‑language‑model answers, yet results vary widely. Tools such as Profound, Ahrefs Brand Radar and Adobe‑acquired Semrush platform charge from $99 to over $1,000 per month, while...
AI Assistants That Sell You Things On The Side | Behind the Numbers
In this episode of "Behind the Numbers," hosts Marcus, Grace Harmon, and Nate Elliott dissect OpenAI's ambitious plan to generate $100 billion in ad revenue from ChatGPT by 2030. They critique the feasibility of scaling from a $100 million pilot to billions...
Build Repeatable AI Workflows for Scalable PPC Success
"The AI outputs are inconsistent." If you’re tired of AI feeling like a hit-or-miss magic trick, you need a workflow, not a better prompt. Ann Stanley joins us to break down how to build repeatable AI systems for PPC that actually scale. Watch:...
AI Is Marketing’s Stradivarius, but Needs Human Judgment
Possible 2026: AI is marketing’s Stradivarius. But ‘the violin can’t play itself.’ | The Current “AI can’t replace judgment and taste and critical thinking,” said Tracy-Ann Lim, global chief media officer at JPMorgan Chase….trust is a new ROI,” she added.” https://t.co/jO61AWMZNb
Why Reputation Is the New Growth Hack for Startups
Startups in Southeast Asia are increasingly treating reputation as a quantifiable growth lever, with Burson estimating the global Reputation Economy at $7.07 trillion and linking strong reputations to up to 4.78% extra annual shareholder returns. The article argues that consistent, early...
R/GA Charts 50 Years of Innovation with New Book Release
R/GA, the New York‑based creative agency, has published a new book titled “By Design: Revolutionising Film, The Internet, Social and Beyond,” documenting its 50‑year journey from a film studio to a digital and AI‑focused brand innovator. The volume draws on...
Why Bad Product Reviews Will Soon Destroy Your Best Marketing Efforts
AI‑driven recommendation platforms now rank brands on real consumer feedback and third‑party test results, not on advertising spend. A global water brand with massive media budgets fell invisible in AI rankings because blind taste tests favored competitors. The shift forces...
Google and Ulta Beauty Launch AI‑Powered Shopping Across Google Search and Gemini
Google and Ulta Beauty announced a joint rollout of AI‑driven, agentic commerce on Google Search and the Gemini app, using Gemini Enterprise and the Universal Commerce Protocol. The integration lets shoppers receive personalized product recommendations, compare options and checkout within...
Why Exhibition Leads Fail, and How Companies Can Build a Pipeline that Actually Converts
Exhibitions remain a popular channel for business development, but many companies fail to convert the leads generated because post‑event follow‑up is poorly executed. The article identifies three operational weaknesses: missing contextual information, unclear ownership after the show, and treating follow‑up...
Heineken Names Serena Williams As Global Brand Ambassador
Heineken 0.0 has appointed tennis icon Serena Williams as its global brand ambassador, linking the alcohol‑free lager to the fast‑growing sport of padel. To debut the partnership, Williams surprised players in Miami through the Open Match feature on Playtomic, embodying Heineken’s "Unexpected...
Pinterest Says ‘I Do’ to Experiential Marketing with Real Sydney Office Wedding
Pinterest transformed its Sydney headquarters into a live wedding venue, marking the platform’s first corporate ceremony and tying the stunt to its 2026 Wedding Trends Report. The event featured local couple Naïla Bliekast and Lachlan Martin and integrated partners such as Grace...
The Devil Wears Prada 2: An Inflection Point For Brand Partnerships
The sequel to *The Devil Wears Prada* is being built around a web of brand partnerships rather than isolated product placements. L’Oréal Paris serves as the official beauty partner, TRESemmé is the signature hair brand, and Mecca released a limited‑edition “Runway...